Magnetic chip conveyors, which are configured such that a magnetic chip is placed on the front surface of a non-magnetic plate, a plurality of magnets mounted to an endless chain on the rear surface of the plate are moved from one end of the plate to the other end thereof so that the chip is dropped from the other end of the plate, are known (Patent Literature 1, Patent Literature 2, Patent Literature 3). Such magnetic chip conveyors are preferred because chips generated during processing can be separated from coolant and discharged and coolant is less frequently carried to the outside.
In the conventional magnetic chip conveyors, however, when a long chip such as a chip generated by a lathe is generated, adsorption forces that adsorb both end portions of a long chip simultaneously by magnetic force by the magnets on the upstream side and the downstream side of the endless chain, the frictional force between a conveyance surface and the chip, and the force of gravity of the chip may be balanced with a given probability. In such a case, there is a problem in that the long chip does not move on the front surface of the non-magnetic plate and the long chip remains on the front surface of the non-magnetic plate.